Join the Great Typo Hunt with Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson

So I recently took a flight that was slightly overbooked and offered to stay behind. I was given a wonderful little voucher for $400 more travel. Unfortunately, that means I can’t go through priceline.com or some such useful website to buy the ticket, I have to use the airline’s directly, which I couldn’t quite figure out. So I called them, got myself booked on a flight, was quite pleased with the customer service, and went to forward the confirmation to my girlfriend–so she could see when I’m coming home.

Boy was I surprised to discover I was flying out of a different airport. One little letter can make all the difference sometimes. MHT had been entered as MDT, moving my departure location from Manchester, NH to Harrisburg, PA. (Actually, because of the way the e-mail lists your first name, middle initial, and where you’re flying out of, I’d first thought they’d gotten my name wrong: Benjamin D. Harrisburg. Hey, I’ve been mistaken for a certain President, and this wasn’t that far off.)

So I had to call back. And do it all over again. All due to one tiny miskey. There are plenty of times, I’ll grant you, when a typo doesn’t make THAT much difference. Sure, it can reflect poorly on you or communicate something about your level of care/dedication, but it doesn’t change the meaning of the word your reader can figure out. However, it’s best to build the habit of catching typos whenever possible so that you are ready when that one typo comes along that can change everything. Fortunately, I managed to catch this one before 24 hours had passed, or else I wouldn’t have been able to get it refunded.

To enter for a chance to win a copy, visit the guys on Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube and leave a comment there.

Then come back here and paste the link. Oh, and we’d love to know what your typo “pet peeve” is, too! (Winners chosen at random and notified by email. Limited quantities; while supplies last. No purchase necessary.)

Nicole Brueggemann Brinker I remember one night, my sister and I were having drinks at a bar while on vacation. A commercial came on for some sort of pool system and while I can’t remember the exact typo, I remember it was SO blatant! We were a little tipsy by that time of the night so we called the 1-800 number, and laughing like a couple of …drunk idiots, tried to get them to explain to us why would buy something from somewhere that didn’t even edit their commercials! The poor guy on the other end of the phone did a really good job of maintaining his composure…

When I’m reading a book, newspaper or magazine, a typo in a sentence will flash like a neon sign and I can never understand why it’s not caught before it’s printed. Apparently somebody is asleep on the job and I want their job!!!! I also want to read this book!

Perhaps it worked this time… my Facebook comment was: “Wishing and hoping that Jeff and Benjamin would come to the Princeton, NJ area. Many people in the area are in need of Typo Eradication.”

And my typo pet peeve is when I find typos in books that I am reading. Seriously? Publishers, proof readers, editors and such get money to find these typos. I paid THEM to read the book and I am the one finding the mistakes! Ouch!

Thank goodness this problem is being taken seriously and that you are working to correct many public typos. My biggest pet peeve is the common misuse of there, their, but they all make me crazy.

I just read about your new book on Read It Forward and I would love to win a copy as I am disabled and can’t afford new books…

Jane T in NW Louisiana

Couldn’t find a place to comment w/o joining and didn’t want to do that. I would love to send them a copy of our weekly parish paper. This paper would entertain them for quite a while. I can barely read it with typos butting up to typos. Just unbelievable!!!

Kassanndra

You don’t even know how much I would love to win this book. A most recent error I wanted to fix:
On a Victoria’s Secret t-shirt “VS Heart’s Peace”
The heart owns peace? All righty VS.http://twitter.com/pondhopper

I hate when people refuse to learn when to use there, their, or they’re. I also can’t stand when people refuse to learn when to use are/our, witch/which, for/four/fore, anything along those lines.

Marcy W.

I am hoping to receive this book. It sounds like an interesting one to curl up with in the summer.

mcpenguin5@yahoo.com

I grit my teeth when I see a word which goes through spell-check but isn’t the right word, such as “there” for “their” or “they’re”. If people just re-read what they wrote, I would hope they would see the problem, but I am not sure they would. I once accepted a job at a company where I had been working as a Temp. The memo went out that I was now an employee who had previously “tempt” with them. I laughed till I cried. When I showed the typo to the girl who wrote it, she looked puzzled and said “But I ran it through spell-check and it said it was okay!”

I grit my teeth when I see a word which goes through spell-check but isn’t the right word, such as “there” for “their” or “they’re”. If people just re-read what they wrote, I would hope they would see the problem, but I am not sure they would. I once accepted a job at a company where I had been working as a Temp. The memo went out that I was now an employee who had previously “tempt” with them. I laughed till I cried. When I showed the typo to the girl who wrote it, she looked puzzled and said “But I ran it through spell-check and it said it was okay!”

There are so many, but a few continue to baffle me: the misspelling of convenient as “convient” (it’s astounding how often I encounter this) as well as the misspellings of lavender, calendar and dalmatian. It’s an epidemic!

Not to sound uppity, but the whole are/our thing blows my mind. Their/there/they’re and to/too/two at least sound alike.

Amy fischer

this looks funny

Amy fischer

great book

Sahara Diana Quinn

One of my pet peeves in typos is when “field” is spelled “feild”. I used to live in Littlefield, Arizona, and one of the offramp signs spelled it “feild”. It drove me nuts everytime I came home from town.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I win one of your books. It’s a GREAT idea! I left a comment on Facebook saying so “two”. LOL (winking at Priscilla)_

Hooray! My family makes fun of me for getting frustrated over typos and the like (some people even take the time to carve misplaced apostrophes half an inch deep in wooden signs!). But perhaps the world will be a more coherent place as a result of the efforts of people like you.

Kira, editor at Read It Forward

Many thanks to everyone who posted. We love hearing your thoughts. This giveaway offer ended 9/3/10, but we still want you to keep visiting the Typo Hunt guys to let them know if you’re successful in your own Typo Hunt!

Patricia N

I just liked their Facebook page and left a comment as Patti Mercier Nicklas
I would love to read this book!

Emily Bell

Plural/possessive errors! I’m saving one at our bookstore for the guys to fix!

Sequel suggestion: Root out the songs with the most blatant use of bad grammar. A good example is CROCODILE ROCK, by Elton John. “Me and Susie had so much fun” reinforced my daughters in the 70′s, 80′s and 90′s to simply insert “Me and” in front of another name to be combined with their own name at the beginning of a sentence using in a sentence. This is so difficult to correct when they hear it in a popular record that was played over and over!